Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

MELANCHOLY

in Microcosmus

Metadata

PlayMicrocosmus
Year (catalogued)1637
First performance1637
Decade1630s
GenreMorality;Masque
Play typeOccasional;Adult Professional;Professional
CompanyQueen Henrietta Maria's Men
TheaterSalisbury Court;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Melan. | Mela. | Mel.
Words273
Characters1412
Typicality0.28 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07975
BritDrama no.2543
ClusterCluster 12 — Wooers, gallants & courtly love-talk

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

I am called Melancholy. I was begotten on the earth after a great drought in the time of barren n sse: who breeding me up hardly, enabled me the bet ter for this hungry profession. I would feign be in love; but having no other mistress. I am enforced to love mine own humour. Or a Physician. Not so hight good Choler. I am partaking, and as discontented at this match as envy can make me. I could hatch a conspiracy to sever them, should cause po sterity attribute all Matchiavillianisme to Melancholy. Might I advice you sir, a passion at Courtship were more powerful. Let a sighs be the perjod of every amorous sentence. Sing her some pathetic madrigal full of chromatic lats: it'll sharpen her. I would have all lovers begin and end their pricksong with Lachry m , Till they have wept themselves as dry as I am. Phlegm do thou choke him. Shall it be a plot? So is Melancholy. And will she not return? then may the Sun Stable his horses ever, and no day Gum ld the black air with light. If in mine eye Sh e be not placed, what object can deal ght it? What do I see? lush gray-eyed morn, and spread Thy purple shame upon the mountain tops: Oh pale thy self with envy, since here com's A brighter Venus, then the dull-eyd are, That lights thee up O let me kiss those pair of read twinned cher rises. That do disti l Nepen he. And me merry. O turn not from me let me smell the gums, Which thy rich breath creates.

Plot summary

Plot — Microcosmus
The four elements, children of Nature and Janus, fight with one another. Janus' attempts to discipline them prove ineffectual, so Nature tries to persuade them to procreate. She invokes the help of Love, who creates concord between the elements through the music of the spheres. Earth gives birth to Physander, the perfect being. The four humours become his servants, and Love brings him Bellanima to be his wife. But Bellanima brings with her a good and bad genius, who can each influence Physander's moral actions. He succumbs to temptation, dismisses the good genius, and seeks out the whore Sensuality. The four humours suggest ways of wooing her: Choler proposes violence, Blood, dance, Phlegm, language, and Melancholy, pathos. The five senses, Sensuality's servants, conduct him to her, and she seduces him with the promise of luxury. Bellanima attempts to reclaim him, but he refuses her. After sleeping with Sensuality, Physander falls ill. The humours drunkenly attack him, and Sensuality disowns him. He feels ashamed at having left his wife for a whore. Bellanima summons Temperance to cure his wounds; she prescribes a simple life and frugal diet, and he is cured. The evil genius still maliciously seeks his destruction, and plans to drive him to suicide through remorse. He is tormented by Furies and accused before the court of Conscience; Despair prosecutes, andHope speaks for thedefence. Physander admits his marital crimes, but his penitence and commitment to future fidelity save him from punishment. With no further power over him, the evil genius can only torment herself; Sensuality, reduced to beggary, joins her on the road to Hell. Love accepts Physander and Bellanima into Elysium, and they are crowned with stars.